THE next week marks the introduction of two of the biggest and most important pieces of legislation to improve the health of the people of Wales in decades.

On Sunday prescription charges will be abolished for people in Wales, with a ban on smoking in all enclosed public places being introduced on Monday April 2.

Both these Welsh Assembly Government measures will, over time, dramatically improve the health of the nation.

In next week's column I will focus on the smoking ban, but today I am going to explain why the Assembly Government is introducing free prescriptions.

Free prescriptions is a clear example of how devolution is allowing Wales to come up with Welsh solutions to Welsh circumstances.

This solution will help patients in Wales in two ways:

In the ordinary clinical setting, prescribers will now be able to issue free prescriptions to patients. Where patients already buy non-prescription medication over the counter without the need to see a prescriber they should continue to do so in the normal way.

Wales' industrial heritage has left a legacy of ill-health among its population, especially of chronic conditions. While some people with chronic conditions were entitled to free medicine many were not. While those with epilepsy receive free prescriptions, people with asthma do not. Our new policy ends this anomaly.

Research shows that many people are deterred from taking regular medication that would help them live healthier lives because of the cost of paying for prescriptions.

If patients cannot afford the medicines they need to treat their condition effectively, the long-term costs to the NHS could be far greater in terms of avoidable hospital treatment.

We recognised the potential link between health improvement and the cost of prescriptions in 2001 when we froze the cost of prescriptions at £6.

Then, in 2003, we made a commitment that by April this year, prescriptions would be free for people in Wales.

People in Wales have already started to benefit as the cost of prescriptions have gradually been falling since 2004.

Currently prescriptions are only free for those people under 25 and over 60 or who have certain medical conditions or are on the Low Income Scheme.

Having spent 25 years as a GP in South Wales, I know from personal experience that many patients coming into my surgery found compliance with treatment difficult due to prescription charges.

But because they didn't fall into the exemption categories they had to decide whether they could afford all the medication they need. This will no longer be the case.

From Sunday, those who are entitled to free prescriptions are people registered with a Welsh GP or Welsh patients who have an English GP with an accompanying entitlement card who get their prescriptions from a Welsh pharmacist.

While this will benefit everyone who currently pays for prescriptions in Wales, it should particularly benefit those people on modest incomes or who have chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer.

At the moment, people with these conditions are not eligible for free prescriptions under the current complex and outdated exemption system.

The same is true for people with cystic fibrosis or those who have had an organ transplant.

While people living with these conditions should benefit significantly from free prescriptions due to the many medications they need, there are many other equally deserving conditions.

It would be complex and impractical to extend the current exemptions, whereas introducing free prescriptions for all ensures that anyone who needs medication will get it.

This is the simplest and most effective way of resolving health inequalities and these inconsistencies in prescribing.

The availability of free prescriptions will also remove the financial disincentive that some people face over returning to work.

Many people are economically inactive due to a health problem. If they are on a low income they will receive free prescriptions. This concession could be lost if a person went back to work and boosted their income as a consequence.

So, free prescriptions makes clinical sense and also removes a financial barrier to many people taking up gainful employment.